Chapter 88 clean start

Finally in Varanasi (Varanasi). The city, now known as Benares, is a sacred place both for Hindus and Buddhists. The great Ganges is nearby, and the Indian people not only regard it as a mother river, but also as a sacred waterway leading to heaven.It is a blessing to come to Varanasi once in a lifetime, drink a sip of Ganges water, and take a bath in the Ganges. Many old people walk to Varanasi slowly when they feel in poor health, and sleep by the Ganges. He ended his life next to its body, and then scattered his ashes into the Ganges. Because of the sanctity of this river and this city, many scholars and writers have moved here in history, and as a result, this place has become even more sacred.It was late at night when we crossed the Ganges River, its breathtaking momentum and mighty light washed away all the irritability I felt in the real world these days.

Sleeping soundly next to the Ganges River, I woke up refreshed this morning.where to goThis is up to me. Drive ten kilometers north to Sarnath, the holy place where Buddha Sakyamuni gave his first lecture. Arriving soon, I saw a lush forest, which reminded me of the origin of the elegant place name Sarnath. This was originally a forest.A king liked to hunt deer here, and the deer herd killed and injured countless.Deer have deer kings, in order to protect their subordinates, one deer is arranged to be sacrificed every day, while the other deer hide.The king was very surprised that he could only hunt one deer every day, but since he could hunt it, it was fine.

One day, he was surprised to see a deer with an extraordinary bearing approaching him with sad eyes. Thanks to a hunter who had been spying on the deer, he reported the truth.Only then did I realize that the hunting of one deer every day had already reduced the herd of deer sharply. Today it was the turn of a pregnant doe to be sacrificed. The deer king couldn't bear it and replaced it himself. Hearing this, the king was like thunder, and felt that he was not as good as the deer king.Immediately ordered no more hunting of deer, no more killing, and set up a deer park for the king of deer to live freely with the herd of deer.

In such a place, about one day in 531 BC, a thin middle-aged man came to look for his five companions. This middle-aged man is the Buddha Sakyamuni.A few years ago, he used ascetic methods to practice on the banks of the Nilian Chan River, and five companions followed him.But later he felt that asceticism was not helpful for spiritual liberation, so he decided to rethink. The five partners thought he wanted to retreat, so they broke up with him and went to Sarnath to continue the penance practice.Later, Sakyamuni truly enlightened under the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya, so he traveled 200 kilometers west to find his companions.

He talked about his way of enlightenment to his companions here, and the five companions immediately became enlightened and became the first batch of disciples.Soon, the number of disciples near Sarnath expanded to more than 50, and they all gathered here to listen to lectures, and then went out to preach as monks.So this place is very critical.The first lecture made one person realize Buddhism and form the first batch of monks.At this point, the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha are complete, and Buddhism has formally formed. At the place where the Buddha Sakyamuni gave his lecture for the first time, there is a circular platform with a diameter of about 25 meters and a height of about one meter, which is made of ancient red sandstone bricks.On the edge of the pulpit are four long poufs, which should be the place where the five first batch of monks listened.There are no seats in the center of the pulpit, but there is a small stone peg, which can be used as a fixed seat. Now some believers have covered it with gold leaf, and sprinkled some flower petals around it.

Below the pulpit is a grassland, where stone and brick poufs are built in a patchwork pattern, which is obviously a place for monks to listen to lectures or retreat after the expansion. There is a group of architectural relics on the north side of the pulpit, which were built in the Ashoka era, and there is also a broken Ashoka pillar, which was erected by the real Ashoka. It should be erected in the early 1970s BC. become a holy place. This honor brought excitement, which lasted for almost a thousand years until Xuanzang came in the seventh century AD. There were still many palaces and palaces, and the rules were poor. The description in "Da Tang Western Regions" is unforgettable.

Buddhism has long since declined in India, and it has become too cold and lonely here.I am also a little happy about this kind of silence, because it truly conveys the simplicity of Buddhism at the beginning of its founding. There is no cigarette smoke, no bells and pans chiming, no Buddha statues and temples, no clouds of believers, only the most intelligent and rational language babbles here.This place should be quieter and simpler to show that Buddhism, one of the world's three major religions, is essentially a civilization of wise men. First, there were a few children climbing between the pulpit and the stone pier, and then a few Tibetan Buddhist believers who had crossed the Himalayas, and there were only us.The bushes surrounded us in the distance, and there were no deer behind the bushes.It is said that the stone pier is spread far away, and it is impossible to hear the voice from the pulpit in the distance. Sitting on the stone pier is only for cultivation.

I walked around the podium, the host Li Hui, the director Zhang Li, and Fan Qingyuan came to ask me what I was thinking.I said: I have seen many magnificent Buddhist temples, and I have even seen my grandmother's generation travel hundreds of miles with bound feet to visit.No matter whether the history of China is booming or declining, a large part of civil society relies on Buddhism to regulate the spirit and spread kindness.This is where it all starts.Thinking of the relationship between such a forum and the vast land of China, the relationship with the spiritual sustenance of our ancestors, and even the relationship with a person like me who grew up listening to the chanting of Buddhist scriptures, I was a little excited.

As a world-wide religion with far-reaching influence, at this moment, believers of Buddhism worship solemnly in temples in countless countries, but as the founding place, there is not a single Buddha statue, an incense burner, or a futon here.This kind of cleanliness moved me, and I bowed deeply to these ancient pulpits and stone seats on the grass. On the east side of Sarnath, there is a simple and conical tower called Damac Tower.The strange thing is that the upper half of the tower is dark brown, and the lower half is off-white.When I asked, it turned out that after the decline of Buddhism, the Sarnath and the lower half of the pagoda were annihilated, leaving only the upper half of the pagoda on the ground, which was covered with dust for a long time.

In the 18th century, a British Buddhist archaeologist excavated with speculation, and as a result, not only the pagoda was dug out, but also Sarnath.The re-emergence of this Buddhist holy place is still in this century, not long ago. The pulpit, which has been silent for thousands of years, has begun to receive sunlight and rain again. Maybe the Lord Buddha has something to say in the dark? December 20, 1999, Varanasi, India, overnight at Taj Ganges Hotel